This article's goal is to present some of the main flow assurance challenges faced by PETROBRAS in the Buzios oil field, from its early design stages to full operation, up to this day. These challenges include: hydrate formation in WAG (Water Alternating Gas) operations; reliability of the chemical injection system to prevent scale deposition; increasing GLR (Gas Liquid Ratio) management and operations with extremely high flowrates.

Flow assurance experience amassed in Buzios and in other pre-salt oil fields, regarding all these presented issues, is particularly relevant for the development of future projects with similar characteristics, such as high liquid flow rate, high CO2 content and high scaling potential.

Keywords:
flow assurance, production control, piping design, scale remediation, modeling & simulation, miscible method, wax remediation, enhanced recovery, hydrate remediation, paraffin remediation
Subjects:
Well & Reservoir Surveillance and Monitoring, Production Chemistry, Metallurgy and Biology, Pipelines, Flowlines and Risers, Flow Assurance, Improved and Enhanced Recovery, Formation Evaluation & Management, Inhibition and remediation of hydrates, scale, paraffin / wax and asphaltene, Piping design and simulation, Miscible methods, Drillstem/well testing
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